"Be sure to clean up your online presence before job hunting. Try to remove anything negative," says Susan Kennedy, founder and president of Career Treking and author of "The Job Coach for Young Professionals." "One of the first things a potential employer will do is a simple search for you online -- you don't want any surprises coming up. This is your chance to make a first impression, and you want to ensure that it's the right one."
When it comes to your job search, everything from your pictures and tweets to your eBay transactions counts, according to a 2010 study from Microsoft. Seventy-nine percent of prospective employers review online information about job applicants, according to the survey. The study of 1,200 hiring and recruitment managers in the U.S., the U.K., Germany and France what they use to research applicants found that 78 percent use search engines, 63 percent use networking sites, 59 percent use photo- and video-sharing sites, 57 percent use professional networking sites, 48 percent use personal websites, 46 percent use blogs and 41 percent use news-sharing sites.
While most employers search on their own for your digital dirt, nowadays some employers ask you outright to share your information. This confuses many job seekers, as the line between what to include and what not include is often blurred.
"The main reason you would need to be choosy is if you haven't taken care with managing your online presence in the past," says Cath Duncan, career coach. "If you've been happily uploading videos of your drunken escapades or commenting about how bored you are at work and how much you've been skiving off, or if your Facebook page shows that you've been playing Farmville all day during work hours then this will reflect very badly on you with potential employers."
Even so, your online presence doesn't have to work against you. If you play your cards right, you can use your social media existence to help your job search, rather than hinder it.
"Social networking is an extraordinarily useful collection of tools for personal branding, seeking to create serendipity through online collaboration, interacting with peers from your college, your industry, even your company's competitors," says Barry L. Davis, director of career services for LMA Consulting Group. "The intelligent individual will use these applications to show their aspirations as well as their accomplishments, seeking opportunities to stand out from the mass of job seekers out there."
So, if an employer asks you to share your social networking profile, here are some things to keep in mind, according to Duncan.
1. "Facebook probably isn't a good platform to share with your employers or potential employers. It's designed to be more social and you can't control what your friends post on your wall. Facebook also doesn't have the best features for displaying yourself and the value you can add to potential employers," she says."
2. "LinkedIn has better features for displaying your value to employers. You should upload your CV, you should collect recommendations, and you should record your employment history," she says. "You can also link to your Twitter account and blog and other relevant information about you. Your connections on LinkedIn tend to behave more professionally on the site than they do on Facebook, so you're not going to have them commenting inappropriately on your page. LinkedIn is the more appropriate profile to share with your employer or potential employees."
Jessica Silverstein, principal of Attorney's Counsel, a résumé and cover letter review and interview skills assessment firm, says LinkedIn profiles are generally used for professional purposes and can work to bolster a candidate's application when used correctly.
"LinkedIn, like a cover letter, should be used as an addition to your résumé. Use the summary section to highlight your achievements and relevant work experience. Always be careful of typos and language. LinkedIn is your opportunity to show others your interests and affiliations without adding unnecessary information to your résumé," she says.
3. "If you're using your Twitter account, blog or similar as a way of sharing your ideas -- the stuff you're enjoying reading and what's getting you thinking -- and you're keeping these aligned with your personal and professional brand then its appropriate to share these," Duncan says. "Remember that these are probably public anyway and will be found if they [search for] you. Consciously decide who you want to be and align your life and your online presence with that. When people [search for] you, they'll find more information that reinforces what you've already shared with them."
By Rachel Farrell, CareerBuilder.com writer
